the king “of all the earth,” i.e., of Brahmans, who believed themselves the highest and only representatives of humanity for whom earth was evolved.  The second meaning is purely esoteric.  Every adept or genuine Mahatma is said to “possess the earth,” by the power of his occult knowledge.  Hence, a series of ten Moryas, all initiated adepts, would be regarded by the occultists, and referred to as “possessing all the earth,” or all its knowledge.  The names of “Chandragupta” and “Kautilya” have also an esoteric significance.  Let our Brother ponder over their Sanskrit meaning, and he will perhaps see what bearing the phrase—­“for Kautilya will place Chandragupta upon the throne”—­has upon the Moryas possessing the earth.  We would also remind our Brother that the word Itihasa, ordinarily translated as “history,” is defined by Sanskrit authorities to be the narrative of the lives of some August personages, conveying at the same time meanings of the highest moral and occult importance.

The Theory of Cycles

It is now some time since this theory—­which was first propounded in the oldest religion of the world, Vedaism—­has been gradually coming into prominence again.  It was taught by various Greek philosophers, and afterwards defended by the Theosophists of the Middle Ages, but came to be flatly denied by the wise men of the West, the world of negations.  Contrary to the rule, it is the men of science themselves who have revived this theory.  Statistics of events of the most varied nature are fast being collected and collated with the seriousness demanded by important scientific questions.  Statistics of wars and of the periods (or cycles) of the appearance of great men—­at least those who have been recognized as such by their contemporaries; statistics of the periods of development and progress of large commercial centres; of the rise and fall of arts and sciences; of cataclysms, such as earthquakes, epidemics; periods of extraordinary cold and heat; cycles of revolutions, and of the rise and fall of empires, &c.:  all these are subjected in turn to the analysis of the minutest mathematical calculations.  Finally, even the occult significance of numbers in names of persons and cities, in events, and like matters, receives unwonted attention.  If, on the one hand, a great portion of the educated public is running into atheism and scepticism, on the other hand, we find an evident current of mysticism forcing its way into science.  It is the sign of an irrepressible need in humanity to assure itself that there is a power paramount over matter; an occult and mysterious law which governs the world, and which we should rather study and closely watch, trying to adapt ourselves to it, than blindly deny, and dash ourselves vainly against the rock of destiny.  More than one thoughtful mind, while studying the fortunes and reverses of nations and great empires, has been struck by one identical feature